18/11/2021
NEWS STORY
Having previously said he didn't think too much of Max Verstappen's move on lap 48 of the Brazilian GP, Lewis Hamilton now admits to changing his mind.
Speaking in the moments after last week's race, when asked about the controversial incident on the 48th lap, Hamilton didn't appear too concerned.
"In the heat of the moment, it doesn't... I don't really know," he said. "I think I was ahead initially, and I think he held his ground and we both ran out of road.
"Well, I think he was running out of road," he continued, "so I obviously had to avoid to go out of road - but I mean, I didn't think too much of it and obviously I'll have to watch the replay, but it's hard battling and wouldn't expect anything less really. We didn't touch wheels, which is good."
A week later, as his team pushes for the incident to be reviewed, the seven-time world champion appears to have had a change of heart.
"I think the reason at the time I would say is that's the mentality you have to take," he told reporters in Qatar today, in reference to his previous comment on the incident.
"If you sit in the car at the moment and complain it will only hold you back," he continued, "so in the moment I just had to keep moving forwards... also it's difficult to judge on something that you've not seen all the angles.
"I've re-looked at it and I have a different viewpoint naturally now," he admitted, "but I'm just putting all my energy into setting up the car and making sure that I'm in the right headspace this weekend, so I've not really given anything to it."
Asked to give his opinion of the incident now that he's seen the evidence he was giving little away.
"Honestly, it's not something I want to dive too much more into," he said; "I've not looked at all... I've seen the onboard footage for example that came out, but as I said last race I was just trying to focus on the fact that we did something that was quite remarkable, so unexpected, so I'm trying not to focus on any negatives.
"The team, I know are in discussion at this point, so I'll leave them to it."
Check out our Thursday gallery from Qatar, here.